Terra de Boa Gente

Doing research on tourism. The price of wood to construct a house doubled in two year since a lot of building activity is going on. Same happened with the price of rice, staple food here. Explored a stretch of beach yesterday. Felt like Vasco da Gama, who called this land Terra de Boa Gente, The land of the Friendly People. Walking on unspoiled land, palmtrees, bleu see, nobody. Suddenly between the palmtrees: a grass hut, a few pairs of eyes looking at me, people smiling, waving. Within years the whole strip of land will have lodges, people running around half naked and the smell of sun lotion and braaing tourists will take over the smell of the ocean, giving the growth of Mozambique’s GDP a boost. ‘We are happy the tourists are coming’, Domingos (‘Born on Sunday’) a 19-year old curio seller tells me. ‘But only a few people make good profit. Most of us have to work just to be able to buy food.’